The Emperor Strikes Back
by slybone
Summary: Series: After A New Path AU SLASH The Skywalker family has now been refugees for a little over eight years. Together with the Solo family, they strive to help their planet while remaining in anonymity, but although they know it not, this last chance at
1. Chapter 1

"Do you know what your children are up to?" Obi-Wan asked without preamble as he walked into Anakin's workroom being careful to step over the random piles of spare parts that he could never convince Anakin to put away. The sunlight streamed through the windows, bathing the room in a golden light and glinting of the ever-present metal.

Anakin didn't look up from where he was fiddling with some loose wires of a part that probably went in their speeder. "World domination?" he answered setting one tool down and reaching for another that was lined up to his right.

Rolling his eyes, Obi-Wan took care not to disturb anything as he leaned closer to watch Anakin work with fine precision. "Not such as yet, but I shouldn't be surprised to find it was on their to-do list," Obi-Wan made himself sound cross, though in actuality he was really quite amused by the children's antics this time. He'd been right when he thought their lives would never be boring.

"So what are the little urchins up to this time?" Anakin asked, leaving his tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as he worked on a rather tricky tie-up, a quirk that Obi-Wan fell in love with every time he saw it.

They'd all changed in the past eight years, but none more then Anakin. He'd finished all his growing, and was now a tall man with broad shoulders who was still just a bit underweight. His hair, more golden then plain brown, was kept it longer then he used to, and the scar over his eye had faded to a quiet line of silver. The only aspect of him that hadn't changed were his eyes and how they sparkled every time they looked upon someone he loved, and that list had grown to include two more: Luke and Leia.

Obi-Wan could remember the day that Padme had delivered the twins, no one had been more surprised then she was, but no one had been happier then Anakin. There had been small complications with Leia's delivery, but with the help of the Solo's medical droids, Padme was fine, even if she wouldn't be able to have any more children. The first time Obi-Wan had held the babies, tears had dripped on their tiny faces as he wondered how the Council could forbid something so wonderful.

An arm wrapping around his waist pulled him back to the present just as Anakin was pulling him closer, leaning over and resting his head on the soft material of Obi-Wan's shirt. Smiling, Obi-Wan petted the smooth hair that he so loved to twist while Anakin did sinful things with his tongue. "You're children are, as we speak, storming the Emperor's palace," Obi-Wan said with stoic deliberateness. "And you'll never guess what the Jedi-in-charge is doing."

"That's my boy," Anakin said pressing his face into the soft part of Obi-Wan's stomach and holding it there breathing Obi-Wan's skin through the thin material. His other hand came up, adding its pressure along side Obi-Wan's ribs.

"Actually, that would be Han Solo," Obi-Wan said not bothering to hide the smile since Anakin couldn't see it anyway, and in fact smiled broader once he heard Anakin's muffled groan. "Your boy," he continued lightly, "is the 'loveable bounty hunter with a heart of gold' protecting the Jedi."

Anakin tilted his head back so that he could look up at Obi-Wan while his chin poked into the fleshy part just underneath Obi-Wan's ribcage. "I knew we shouldn't have introduced Baldwin to the kids. We'll have to get rid of that particular delusion before it causes serious damage."

Sensing a chance to talk about something that had been on his mind quite a bit, Obi-Wan decided he'd have to tread carefully. "I think it would be a simple matter, if we started the twins into lightsaber practice," he spoke casually as if it made him no difference what Anakin's answer was.

"Padme would have a fit," Anakin said pulling on Obi-Wan's shirt until it came loose from his pants. He pulled Obi-Wan into the "v" of his legs and pressed his face against Obi-Wan's thigh breathing hotly over the bulge developing in his pants. Anakin dug his fingers into the flesh of Obi-Wan's butt; his mechanical hand spread out over Obi-Wan's other thigh.

"Just let me deal with her," Obi-Wan replied threading his fingers into Anakin's hair and tugging until he stood so that Obi-Wan could lift his face for a kiss. He'd shaved this morning, but could tell from prickling along his jaw line that Anakin had not bothered. The scent of Anakin surrounded him, a mix of machine lubricant, native fruit from the planet, and some unknown smell that he'd carried with him since Tatooine. It drove Obi-Wan crazy.

Obi-Wan took a moment to rub against his lover spending extra attention to grinding groin against groin. He stepped backwards, pulling Anakin along with him with hands and lips towards the plush chair Anakin kept in case of visitors. He turned them and broke their kiss, licking along Anakin's lower lip before shoving him gently so that he sprawled in the chair.

Obi-Wan sank to his knees and raised his hands to ghost up Anakin's thighs toward the crease where leg met hip. Anakin's eyes were dark and half closed as he watched Obi-Wan lower his head and kiss the inside of one knee and then the other, trailing them upwards until he was mouthing Anakin's erection through the material of his pants.

Anakin groaned, his hips rising slightly encouraging Obi-Wan on with brushes of fingers and harsh whispers. Obi-Wan dragged the offending pants down Anakin's legs and pausing so he could lift his feet, took them off, discarding them somewhere behind him. Running his hands over the newly exposed flesh, Obi-Wan licked his lips, leaning forward and taking the tip of Anakin's penis into his mouth. He hummed softly, digging his thumbs into the other man's abdomen and applying pressure the way the house cats did when they were particularly pleased.

Swallowing around the length in his mouth, Obi-Wan lowered his head taking more in shifting his knees forward so he could press closer to Anakin's heat. Fingers carded through his hair as he bobbed up and down swallowing, licking, and kissing. He stopped as the fingers tightened, nearly painfully, and he looked up questioningly.

"Get up," Anakin said hoarsely urging Obi-Wan to stand with hands under his arms and matching him with kisses and roaming hands. "Stay here; I stashed some lotion in the strong box after the last time."

A smile followed Anakin as he walked across the room to rummage in the box that lay half-hidden in the shadows of the stairs. Obi-Wan pulled his shirt over his head throwing it on the pile started by Anakin's pants, his boots and his own leggings followed suit. The air was chilly with the changing of the season from warm to cold, though the planet never achieved the extremes of such places as Tatooine or Hoth.

Anakin was back a moment later warming Obi-Wan's abandoned skin, maneuvering him to the back of the chair, and bending him over it. The rough material of the chair rubbed him in all the right places and he wriggled, waiting anxiously for Anakin to push inside, fingers first and erection soon after.

The chair skidded across the floor from the combined weight of Anakin and him. Eventually it caught on a crack in the boards and stayed mostly still, but rocked with each thrust that Anakin made. Obi-Wan clutched the armrests as he focused his thoughts on every sensation: the sweat running down his back, Anakin's hands pressing against his shoulders driving him back to meet every drive, his shoulder length hair swinging back and forth.

With every collision of their bodies Anakin let out a small sound, and as he came closer to his conclusion they became louder and longer. He hands roughly pulled Obi-Wan up as he made one final move, stilling as he reached his own fulfillment. Breathing heavily, he cradled Obi-Wan against his body, kissing along the exposed portion of the neck and reaching down with both hands to Obi-Wan's crotch. One hand slid up and down the erect length while the other drifted lower petting the inside of his thighs.

Obi-Wan let his head fall back on Anakin's shoulder, his mouth open allowing for his panting while he thrust desperately into Anakin's hand. His cum splattered across the back of the chair and the floor, and Obi-Wan spared a moment to pity the stains that undoubtedly would not come out before Anakin turned him to claim his mouth in a gentle yet through exploration.

The years since their exile had only brought them closer. Closer in bed, but Obi-Wan also found their bond of partnership deepening as well. They'd dealt with fear, anger, shame and every other negative emotion and situation, but they'd also shared love, joy, and happiness. The planet had offered hardships, but here with Padme and the twins they had prospered past any wish they could have made.

Anakin moved his head back smiling at Obi-Wan and raising a hand to brush away the hair that had fallen to conceal part of Obi-Wan's eyes. "So what was Han doing, anyway?"


	2. Chapter 2

The thick woodlands that permeated the Solo acreage echoed with childish shouts and laughter. Wildlife scattered before three sets of feet running madly and leaping over every obstacle found before them. The last afternoon sun shone down, warming all but the darkest shadows though a chill still floated in the air.

"Hold the line!" the oldest boy yelled to the other two children, brandishing his lightsaber in the general direction of a hill some short distance away. "Press forward, and come at him from the sides!"

The boy was not quite in his awkward stage of development, but from his near clumsiness and length of his limbs, it couldn't be far away. He had dark brown hair cut short in the back and sides, but left with enough length in the front to hang into his eyes. His eyes shone with excitement and good humor and a grin was plastered across his face.

"Master Solo! There are too many clones," the girl, younger then this 'Master' by at least five years, yelled, whipping her own lightsaber around in a graceful arc, blocking blaster fire and killing several clones at the same time, "we'll never get through!"

She was thin and smaller then the other two, her long hair bound up in a rather practical bun on the back of her head. Her face was kind; though it was easy to tell she delighted in the physicality of the game they played. She stayed to the left of the older boy, but kept the other child in her line of sight as well.

"Stand fast, young Padawan Leia!" 'Master' Solo yelled back as he executed a spinning kick to a nearby clone and decimated several more with a Force push. "Bounty Hunter! How do you fare?"

"You just worry about yourself, Jedi!" the younger boy shouted, ducking behind a column before popping back out and firing his blaster in several different directions, all of which made their mark. "My blaster will kill two clones for every one your lightsaber gets!"

This young man bore a strong resemblance to the girl, but his hair was more sandy while hers was dark. His childish body still held some baby fat, but he darted around the forest with supreme confidence, making some rather aerobatic moves. His clothes were more worn and dirty then the other two, and his hair was shaggy and unbrushed.

'Master' Solo gestured with his hands for the other two to join him in the shelter of an overturned statue. 'Padawan' Leia crouched close to his side, keeping watch around the side so no enemies could sneak up behind them. The Bounty Hunter kneeled trying to catch his breath as he looked up at the older boy. All three children worked together as though the communicated not only by voice, but mind as well.

"Your pride shall be your downfall, Luke," Solo said glancing at him before poking his head above the rock ledge for a moment. "He's right in front of us now. There's only one guard with him, I sense a trap."

Leia turned to face them with a grin transforming her face from pretty to beautiful. "Then we should spring this trap, should we not, Master?" she asked casually flipping one edge of her cape over her shoulder.

"That we should, my young apprentice," Solo said laying a hand on her shoulder. He gripped his handle of his lightsaber tightly in one hand, and saluted Luke, nodding. As one, the three children bounded out from behind their shelter and yelling, ran toward the top of the bluff and the evil that awaited them there.

The Emperor stood with his back to them; his bodyguard and apprentice close by his side. Darkness surrounded him muting the light of day, and all three felt the chill of such evil. "Ah, Master Solo and you brought your Padawan along to die as well, how sweet. Since when have you started cavorting with such bounty hunter scum?"

"Your Sith rule is at an end, Emperor," Solo replied calmly, though without lowering his lightsaber or relaxing from his guard. "My companions and I have come to stop you."

"Stop me? Stop me! Your puny little minds cannot conceive my greatness," the Emperor said, rotating to face them with his highly animated arms waving wildly in the air. He turned to his cohort, "Darth Blood, strike them down where they stand."

The Dark Lord's apprentice wheeled forward and stopped menacingly between the Defenders of Light and the Sith. The atmosphere was charged with the battle to come, and the children knew this might be the last time they saw each other alive.

"This is the moment to find out what we are made of, my young friends. Luke, Leia, you two take down the apprentice, I shall deal with the master," Solo said touching both children on the cheek in a farewell gesture. "May the Force be with us all."

Luke and Leia sprang as one to the left, she raising her lightsaber and he his blaster, distracting the rather short Sith apprentice. Solo marched straight forward his lightsaber down at his side as he came to within a yard of his greatest foe. He could only hope that he trained his Padawan well and that she and Luke would look after each other. They, while working together, always kept part of their attention on the doings of the older child.

The Emperor turned to face him full on. "At last we meet one to one, Master Solo. I admit, I have been rather bored lately; running a Galaxy is not quite all fun and games. This should prove to be an amusing exercise in your futility," he said not allowing the barest hint of emotion to cross his face.

"You shall fall!" Solo promised, lifting his lightsaber to eye level and taking the beginning stance of lightsaber combat. Behind him, he could hear Luke and Leia in conflict with Darth Blood, but he needed to focus all of his attention on the being of evil in front of him.

"We shall see," the Emperor said softly and then brandished his hands at Solo sending out powerful streams of Force lightening to disable the great Jedi Master. He began to cackle as Solo twisted in pain and eventually fell, his deactivated lightsaber rolling away from his grasp.

"Join me. Come to the dark side, and we will rule the Galaxy together," the Emperor said standing above where Solo lay clutching his stomach. "You may keep your sidekicks if that is what you wish, but bow down before me!"

"I will never join you!" Solo gasped, feeling his lifeblood running out and wishing he'd had just one more day to spend with the best friends he'd ever have.

"Then you shall die!" the Emperor spat raising his hands to finish off the Jedi Master with his Force lightening.

"Nooooooooooooo!" twin voices yelled in unison from across the bluff. Luke and Leia were too far away to save him, and the bleak knowledge of that fact was written clearly across their faces. Solo tried to give them one last grin to encourage them in their fight, and then slumped to the ground groaning and waiting for the inevitable.

"Well, if you three drama queens are quite finished, we're going to be late for supper if we don't hurry up," a crisp voice said, humor hidden beneath the façade of sternness. It was a voice the children knew well.

Han Solo sat up miraculously healed from his wounds and looked wildly about him. To his left the real Jedi Masters, Anakin and Obi-Wan, stood with their arms crossed, one trying to hide his mirth and the other not bothering. Luke and Leia ran to where he sat on the ground and helped him up standing closely behind him.

"What have you three to say for yourselves?" Anakin asked trying to glare them into submission while Obi-Wan stood a little to his right his hand not quite covering his grin.

"Um, hi Dad?" Luke said kicking the stick that had once been Han's lightsaber behind him to what he hoped was out of sight.

"'Hi, Dad'? That's all you've got to say?" Anakin asked quirking an eyebrow at his son. "What have we told you about playing so deep in the forest? And Threepio, what are you doing?"

Anakin shifted his attention from the trio to the golden droid who had backed up a pace and was waving his fingers through the air at him. The droid looked down at his hands as though surprised and then clenched them into fists brandishing them at the adult Jedi.

"More Jedi scum! You may have blocked my Force lightening, but my loyal servants shall arrive in moments and wreak supreme torment to your bodies!" the droid yelled, his normally proper voice transmuted into something darker and gravely, and something akin to a bad horror holo. "Guards! Guards!"

Obi-Wan lost the battle with himself and doubled over laughing, one hand clutching at his knee and the other wiping at his eyes. The children too were caught up in the adult's mirth and started giggling uncontrollably leaning against each other and only getting louder at the droid's more confused air.

"Han!" Anakin said sharply annoyance clear in his voice. "Did you reprogram him?"

The guilty look was all the answer he needed, and he rolled his eyes stomping over to the droid and flipping its power switch to "off". The children, sensing their reprieve was finished quieted and bowed their heads waiting for a lecture.

"Oh don't be too cross, Anakin," Obi-Wan said going to the children's rescue as he caught his breath back from his fit. "I seem to remember a young Padawan rewiring this droid to think it was a god and frightening an entire race for days before I figured out why you suddenly had all the chocolate you could eat."

Anakin turned his look of annoyance to Obi-Wan, sighing gustily before shaking his head and gaining a smile. "Obi-Wan, would you kindly not bring up stories from my past when I'm lecturing my children about the same mistakes?" he asked as the children giggled again. His fingers flew through Threepio's wiring disconnecting and reconnecting in minutes what it had taken Han hours to do.

"I, oh, dear," Threepio said stuttering as Anakin turned him back on. "What's going on? Why am I out here?"

Obi-Wan patted the droid as Anakin bent down to sweep Luke and Leia up in a hug, spinning them around before setting them back down next to Han. The children looked happy again and gave each other sly grins to congratulate themselves on getting away with breaking the rules. R2D2 wheeled up from where they'd left him on the other side of the bluff, beeping madly to show his displeasure at being left out.

"Come on kids, it's just about time to eat," Anakin said taking Obi-Wan's hand with his right hand and setting his left on Luke's shoulder. "Then you can explain to your mother what you were doing tampering with the droids and playing so far away from the house."

The kids groaned knowing there was no way that their mother would forgive them a little fun for breaking so many rules. The group set off under the trees headed back to the warmth of the hunting lodge that the Solo family had deeded the Skywalkers some years ago.


	3. Chapter 3

Obi-Wan woke the next morning to find that instead of becoming a human cage, Anakin had shifted over toward his wife and lay as close as he could without touching her. Since it was a rare morning that he woke without having Anakin breathing down his neck, in a quite literal and pleasing fashion, Obi-Wan took it as a sign and quietly got up to clothe himself. At the door he turned back for a last look at the lovers; their hair raven black and golden blond met in the middle of the pillow they shared.

The room the twins shared was on his way out and he couldn't help but take a moment to look in on them too. He nudged the door open to be greeted with the general clutter that most children regardless of species foster. Pictures the kids had drawn were pinned up to the wall showing the vastness of their imaginations. The kids slept in beds pushed together at the head to form an 'l', an arrangement they'd chosen when they'd been given the option of separate rooms. When they finally dropped off to sleep was the only time Luke and Leia were ever completely quiet.

Creeping down the stairs, Obi-Wan remembered what their house, which had originally been a hunting lodge attached to a great estate, had been like. It had fallen into extreme disuse, Solo had reckoned the years at two dozen since it had last been visited. Then, while Padme stayed with Mistress Solo at the manor, Solo had helped with his own two hands to restore the lodge to habitable living conditions.

They'd saved the Solo's young son, Han, from one of the native planet's predators, which led to a sit down discussion of mutual benefits of a friendship between the two families. In return for all the machinery work for the Solos and any commissioned by the local village, they received a fair portion of provisions and the privacy they desired. No one mentioned their other work of cloaking the inhabitants from the Empire or the'routine' monster hunts they did in the area. They'd also gained a pair of good friends and an eventual playmate for the twins. Han couldn't play with the village kids due to his social standings and had taken to Luke and Leia despite the age difference.

This morning was crisp with the slightest hint of frost hovering in the air. The dawn seemed all the brighter for the cold nipping his hands and face, and it was, in Obi-Wan's opinion, a perfect morning. Since the beginning of their homesteading, Obi-Wan had been breaking in a path from the lodge to a clearing where he and Anakin had sparred while waiting for the old riding arena to be converted for their uses. Now it was his primary spot for meditation and the more mundane contemplations.

Obi-Wan lay the mat he carried over the aged stump of a tree that sat in the direct center of the clearing. The forest giant had been cut long before they'd arrived on the scene, but Obi-Wan smiled, thinking fondly of what a beauty it must have been. He sat down cross-legged, facing the horizon the sun would rise from, burning away the mists that gave the setting a sense of mystery.

He'd barely begun to focus himself toward the feelings of apprehension that followed him even into sleep before a presence, walking down the same path he'd just emerged from, distracted him. Keeping his eyes shut, he could feel the glowing goodness of the person closing in from behind him.

"I'm sorry I woke you, Padme," he said not moving as her hands came to rest on his shoulders massaging gently through the layers of clothing he wore.

"If you were really sorry, you wouldn't think loud enough to wake me," Padme said, a smile in her voice as she leaned closer, putting more muscle behind her rubbing. "What brings you out this early?"

Leaning into her touch, Obi-Wan let his body disengage for a moment and just reveled in the contact. Eight years and he still couldn't get enough of human contact. The twins were getting to old to sit on his lap and listen to his stories, and he was already dreading the day it ended. "I still say you would have made an outstanding Jedi," he said rolling his head to the side to let her get at his neck.

"And I still say that you would have made one hell of a politician," she shot back giving him one last rub before she dropped her hands and walked around the side of the stump. She was still in her simple black sleeping robe, but had thrown a blanket over it. Obi-Wan would have thought that she would have had the most trouble adapting to their new environment, but Padme quickly became used to doing without all she'd left behind. It was Anakin that moped around at infrequent intervals brooding the fame and adventure he'd left behind.

"Truce!" Obi-Wan called, laughing as he easily shifted over to make room for her to sit beside him. She shared the blanket she had across his shoulders, and he grabbed it with his left hand pulling it tight and bringing them closer together.

They sat in silence, watching as sun beams began to cut through the trees. Padme turned to look up at him, breaking the gentle quiet, "I've been having some disturbing dreams lately, every night in fact. I don't remember them, I barely get flashes, but something's coming Obi-Wan. Something worse then what we've faced already."

"I too have felt something in the Force," Obi-Wan said, transferring his hold on the blanket to his other hand so he could catch her fingers up in a gentle squeeze. "Padme, I want to start training the twins to use the Force actively. They need to learn to use a lightsaber."

"No. We've talked about this already," Padme shook her head and shifted a bit so that she was not leaning against him. "I don't want to steal their childhood! We agreed on that."

Calmly, Obi-Wan wrapped an arm around her slim shoulders and drew her back against him; her hair smelled like fresh blooms and Anakin. After he finally felt her relax against him again, he spoke, lowering his voice, "They can't stay children forever, Padme. They've already had more time then nearly every other child in the galaxy. They play at storming the Emperor's palace; they know that someday we'll have to be involved again. That day may come sooner then any of us wished. You know it's true, search your heart."

She heaved a great sigh and lay her head down on his chest, talking into the folds of his tunic as she listened to his heartbeat, "I do know it's true, I just don't want to believe it. We've given up so much already, how is it fair to ask our children to do the same before they know what it means?"

"Oh they know, Padme. Between the three of us, I think we've raised them not to be complete imbeciles," a slight hint of pride colored Obi-Wan's voice as he contemplated his role in their upbringing. "They hear us talk about the atrocities the Empire commits, and I'm sure they get an earful from young Han about his parents' political movement. The Alliance is nearing the final stages of planning; the Solos are only waiting for word from a few more of their friends before they put their plans into motion."

"And then it will be time to leave," Padme stated sadly, certain in the knowledge that their life together would never be the same again. She lifted her head, bringing her face closer to his, their lips close together so that they shared the breath between them.

"Yes," he said simply his lips moving over hers as they shared the intimacy of one of their few shared moments. He felt a drip running between their faces and pulled back gaining the space to see Padme crying freely. "Now, none of that. You know that if it's meant to be it'll be."

He brushed the tears away and began kissing her face lightly, from her eyelids to the corners of her mouth. A current rippled towards him in the Force and he smiled into Padme's neck enjoying the embrace.

"You know I love it when I catch you two together, it generally means something interesting is on the way," Anakin's voice carried from behind them as the sun finally crested the tops of the trees.


End file.
